Electric regulator.



No. 841,215. PATENTED JAN. 15, 1907.

W. S. ANDREWS.

ELECTRIC REGULATOR.

APPLICATION PILE D JUNE 5,1902.

WITNESSES: INVENTODI 1 mm n rews WW i 97% 70w W A way UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM S. ANDREWS. OF SOHENEOTADY, NEWV YORK, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF- NEW YORK.

ELECTRIC REGULATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed June 5, 1902. Serial 110.110.273.

Fatented Jan. 15, 1907.

To ti/- 1071 0111 it HMM/ concern.-

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM S. ANDREWS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Schenectady, county of Schenectady, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric Regulators, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to electric regulators, and more especially to that ty e in which a resistance in the field-circuit o a dynamo-electric machine is alternately cut into and out of circuit with such rapidity and at such Varying time intervals as to produce a resulting mean current of the value necessary to secure the desired regulation of the machine.

The novel features of my invention are embodied more particularly in the regulatingmagnet forsuch a system and are pointed out with particularity in the appended claims.

The invention itself as to its details of construction and mode of operation will be best understood by reference to the following de scription, taken in connection with the accompanying drawlngs, in wh1ch Figure 1 is a perspective vlew of an apparatus embodying my invention, and Fig. 2 a

diagram of clrcuits 111 connection with which the regulating apparatus may be employed.

The regulator shown in Fig. 1 has a base'l, of slate, marble, or' other suitable material, upon which the working parts of the regulator are mounted. These working parts consist principally of the regulating-magnet 2 and a stretched metallic strip or ribbon 3, carrying an armature 4 within the influence of the magnetic field produced by the magnet. The metallic strip may be of magnetic material, thus doing away with the necessityv for a separate armature. The latter construction, however, permits the strip to be made thin, and there ore flexible. The regulating-magnet is mounted upon the base 1 by means of the angleieces 5, which constitute heads for the spoo upon which the wire of the magnet is wound. Within the magnete coil is a core 6, formed of a bundle of iron.

wires. The extent to which the core 6 projects from the coil may be adjusted by means of an adjusting-screw and nut 7, working through a standard 8, fixed to the base 1. The stretched strip 3, carrying an armature 4, is held in lace between two standards 9 and 10, fixe respectively, to the base 1.

Each. of these standards carries a sliding block 11, having a narrow out within which an end of the stri 3 is placed, as at 12, and

the strip and the lock then riveted or other Wise firmly held together. Each block 11 carries a screw-threaded rod 13, passing tln'ough a hole in the top of the correspond-- 'ing standard. Adjusting-nuts, such as 14,

on the outer ends of the rode 13 enable the tension of the strip 3 to be adjusted at will, v

and When the desired adjustment has been secured the parts are permanently locked against disengagement by j arrin'g or otherwise means of locking-nuts, such as 15, clampmg "against the inside of each standard, as Will be evident. In setting the adjusting and locking nuts a tendency to rotation of the strip 3 exists, to counteract which the blocks 11 are grooved on their bottom portions, and these grooves enga'ge slidew'ays 16, which permit the blocks 11 a certain amount of longitudinal motion, but prevent any ro- "tary movement. The armature 4, instead of being formed ofa single piece of magnetic material secured to the strip 3, is divided along the central wire core 6. Inasmuch as this armature is so thick as not to be readily flexible this cut across its central portion permits the strip 3 to liend at its middle portion when subjected to the influence of the magnetic field of the coil acting u onthe armature. 'A contact-point 17, of atinum or some other suitable non-oxidizab e material, is fixed to the strip at a point about opposite the end of. the core 6, and this contact is adapted to engage an adjustable fixed contact 18, carried by a standard 19, secured to the plate 1. In connecting 'up the regulator thus'described two pairs of binding-posts are employed, one pair only being visib e in the drawings at 19 and 20. One pair of binding p'osts is connected to the terminals of the magnet-coil, the other to the contacts 17 and 18. In Fig. 2 the machine to be re ulated is represented diagrammaticall an includes the armature 21 and the fiel magnet winding 22, having in series therewith two ad justable resistances-23 and 24. The fixed and movable contacts 17 18 of the regulating device (shown in 1) are shunted across one of these resistancesas, for example, .across the resistance 23as indicated. A

condenser 25 is shunted across these contactpoints, so as to reduce the sparking at the points, and thereby prolong the life of the a magnet I may place an adjustable resistance I 28 as a convenient means 'for adjusting the.

pull of the magnet 2 upon the armature carried by the cooperating stretched strip 3.

'that when the resistance 23 is short-cir- The resistances 23vand 24 are chosen so cuited the current in the field of, the machine .will rise above normal, thereby causing the voltage of the machine to rise correspondingly, while when the short circuit is broken the combined resistance 23 and 24 will so far reduce the current flowing in the field as to bring the voltage of the machine below the b acting u 0 and break' action with such rapidit below normal.

normal amount. Upon starting up the appa ratus the contacts 17 and 18 are in engagement with each other, thereby short-circuiting the resistance 23. The voltage of the machine as it builds up will tend to rise As soon, how ever, as the normal voltage is exceeded the magnet 2, which is responsive to this voltagp,

on its armature 4 overcomes t e sticity 0 the stretched strip3 and separates the contacts 17 and 18, thereby opening 3 the short circuit about the resistance 23, thus cutting the resistance into circuit, and so tending-to reduce the voltage of the machine however, to any apfpreciable extentthe clasticity of the stretc ed strip or ribbon overcomes theull of the magnet 2 as the stren th of t e-sam'e decreases with the drop in'vo tage of the mains, thus closin the contact-points 17.andf18 and restabhshing the condition under which the machine tends to build up in voltage. In practice this make goes on continuously and that due to.the sluggish actionof thefiel -'magnet of the machine a practically uniform normal voltage is maintained at any point on the system to which i the regulatingemagnet may be connected.

The -stretched strip or ribbon forming part v of .the regulating mechanism possesses so sion.

sheet metal under tension, and

Before the voltage can drop,

very little inertia and has such a high natural period of vibration of its own that it responds instant y to any change in strength of the regulatin -magnet.

What claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1.' The combination of a dynamo-electric machine having resistance in-its field-circuit, a magnet, a piece of sheet metal stretched in cooperative relation to said magnet, means for placing said piece of sheet metal under tension, and coo" crating contacts shunted about a portion 0t said resistance and adapted to be opened and closed by vibration of said metal.

2. The combination of a d amo-electric machine, resistance in the fiel -circuit of said dynamo-electric machine, and a circuit making and breaking device'shunted about a portion of said resistance, sald device consisting of a magnet, an armature, and a support therefor arranged to be placed under ten- 3. A circuit making and breaking device consisting of a magnet, a divided or two-part armature therefor carried by a piece of cooperating contacts, one fixed and the other secured to said iece of sheet metal at a point between the ivisions or parts of said armature, the latter contactbemg movable in response to movement of the armature.

4. The combination of a regulating-magnet, a stretched strip or ribbon, armature carried by said ribbon and located within the influence'of said magnet, a contact carried by said strip er-ribbon, and a 00- operating fixed contact.

5.- In an interrupter, the combination of an electromagnet, a vibratory strip carrying a contact-point, and a two-part armature mounted on said strip at o positesides of the contact-point, substantial y as specified.

In witness whereof'I have hereunto set my hand this 2d day of June, 1902.

' WILLIAM S. ANDREWS. Witnesses:

BENJAMIN B. HULL," HELEN. Oarom').

a two-p art 

